Decision-Supporting New Product Forecasting

This column is written in support of this special new product forecasting issue of the Journal of Business Forecasting (JBF). My usual advice to forecasters of new product demand is to use Lifecycle Methods. I discussed these in my Spring 2001 JBF column titled, “A Simple Approach for Short Product Lifecycle Forecasting.” While I focused mainly on short-product lifecycle (one-time) products, I pointed out that the methods could be used during the launch phase of a new product to both initialize and then update its demand forecasts over time.